Friday, 7 November 2014

Decision to turn cardiac arrest patients away from St.Vincents Hospital will impact most on Wicklow residents

Wicklow Sinn Féin councillor John Brady has expressed deep concern on plans to stop St.Vincents being designated as a Primary PCI centre. This means that all patients experiencing cardiac arrest will bypass St.Vincents hospital and go to the next Primary PCI centre in the Matter Hospital or St. James's.

Speaking after talking to concerned Wicklow First Responders Cllr Brady said "The news that St.Vincents will no longer deal with suspected Cardiac arrest cases is truly shocking. This means that patients being rushed from Wicklow will bypass two hospitals now, St.Columcilles and St.Vincents and travel at least another 15-20 minutes to the Matter Hospital".

Brady continued "Last November the 24hour A&E closed it's doors in St.Columcilles and all patients were sent onto St.Vincents. Sinn Féin the people of Wicklow and I campaigned tirelessly to save the A&E in St.Columcilles, however Fine Gael and Labour ultimately allowed the HSE close its doors. This move was disgracefully supported by all 5 Wicklow TDs. I predicted that St.Vincents wouldn't be able to cope with the additional patients and it's seems that less than 12 months later I've been proven right".

"This crazy decision for suspected cardiac arrest cases to bypass two hospitals will be most detrimental to the people of Wicklow, particularly to people in South Wicklow who are already at risk due to the additional travel time in getting to St.Vincents. Now for the doors of St.Vincents to be closed in their faces and to be told to continue onto the Matter or St.James's is an absolute disgrace. The promise of St.Vincents being a state of the art hospital, well able to cater for the additional patients from Wicklow has never materialised, people are still lying on trollies and now we have this which shows clearly the decision to close St.Columcillies was a political one aimed at saving money and not to deliver a better service".

Cllr Brady concluded "Haven spoken to a number of First Responders in Wicklow I know they have huge concerns about this decision and also with the lack of consultation. People have been effictively been told today, Friday 7th November from 4pm St.Vincents will no longer deal with cardiac arrests. Did Fine Gael and Labour think they could introduce this change now because everyone's focus was on water charges at this time, I'm afraid not. This is yet another lie and another broken promise from the government and it shows how little they think of the health and welfare of its citizens. I'm calling on Minister Harris and his fellow government TDs here in Wicklow to intervene to ensure this decision is reversed". Ends